And, to their credit, several Eagles started backpedaling away from Vince Young’s fateful words almost as soon as he spoke them July 31, 2011. Young even spent the rest of his short Eagles career trying to clarify them.

But speaking of short Eagles careers … Nnamdi Asomugha was cut Tuesday. The legendary era was long over, but this was the last shovel full of dirt on the coffin. Asomugha was first through the door, so it only made sense that he was last out of it.

That was just two seasons ago—just over 20 months, and exactly 20 losses. And, of course, no Super Bowls. Not even a winning record, much less a playoff appearance. So no more Asomugha or Young or Jason Babin or Cullen Jenkins or Ronnie Brown, who all disappeared piece by piece throughout the last two seasons. Maybe no more Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, an unrestricted free agent.

Definitely no more Andy Reid or Joe Banner, exiled to the Midwest after the 4-12 face-plant of last season. No more proclamations of being on the doorstep of greatness by the new management team personified by coach Chip Kelly.

Finally, at least some 24 hours into the 2013 free-agency period, no splashy signings, headline-grabbing trades or any talk of “dream” anything.

In short, no signs so far that the Eagles are the favorites to win this offseason. They’ve held that trophy and appear to have had enough of that for now.

It’s not that the NFL or its followers need any more cautionary tales about winning the offseason. Among the first reactions not only to Young’s gushy assessment but to the Eagles’ entire game plan that season was, “Looks like they didn’t learn anything from the Redskins.”

Not only has Washington retired the offseason championship trophy, it’s in line to become its namesake. Lombardi Trophy, meet the Snyder Trophy. One wouldn’t think the tales of Deion Sanders, Jeff George and Albert Haynesworth needed repeating.

The Eagles proved that wrong.

And one would think that the adventures of the Dream Team would get the entire sport to kick the 24/7, fine-toothed-comb, instant-analysis habit for every offseason into eternity.

Those Eagles will hold a special place in history for the frenzy of that offseason. For one thing, all the factors that came together to make it part of NFL lore might never happen at the same time again.

Remember, it was a lockout-shortened offseason and an accelerated free-agency period, and that made the flurry of signings seem even faster. The Eagles not only dragged in a big collection of the big names, it dragged in the biggest, the former Raider Asomugha, arguably the biggest defensive “get” of the last decade.

To the biggest reclamation project of our time, Michael Vick, they added possibly the second-biggest as his backup at the most important position, Young. They got Rodgers-Cromartie in a landscape-shaking trade of their former quarterback-of-the-future, Kevin Kolb. It re-made a lagging defense on the fly with four new starters.

Before Young even put that label on them, they seemed Dream Team-ish. And if the term put them in a context they weren’t comfortable with, no less a voice than Banner, then the Eagles’ president, did not hide from it.

“It’s a scary term,” Banner told a reporter that summer, “but … somebody wrote the words ‘The Eagles are all in,’ and that’s how we look at it.”

Banner is now president of the Cleveland Browns.

The surviving member of the Eagles’ brain trust, general manager Howie Roseman, told Philadelphia Magazine last week that, yeah, in hindsight, neither “Dream Team” nor “All In” were such bright ideas after all.

“For us to not look back and see what happened at that time and why it happened… we’ve spent a lot of time doing that since Coach (Kelly) has gotten here—about where we were in our program,” Roseman said. “And it’s very different than where we’re at now.

“To not learn from that and how important it is to build a team and to build the right environment … I think that’s key going forward,” he continued.

From his lips to the rest of NFL Nation’s ears.

But this isn’t an attempt to bury the notion that winners or losers can or should be declared after every single solitary player transaction from the moment free-agency begins, totally devoid of context, with six months to go before a regular-season game is played … Oh, wait. Yes, it is.

It’s also an attempt to give the Dream Team the send-off it deserves. Quite a run those Eagles had, rich and compelling. Failure that complete, humiliating, destructive, instructive, extensive and expensive may never come our way again.

It’s over now. Nnamdi, you’re the last one to leave. Please shut off the lights and lock the door behind you.